Whistler Film Festival scales new heights
By Brian D. Johnson - Tuesday, December 4, 2012 - 0 Comments
George Stroumboulopoulos (left) and Daniel Radcliffe at the Whistler Film Festival (Courtesy WFF 2012)
I’ve been a devotee of the Whistler Film Festival for most of the past decade. Cannes and TIFF are both essential and vast, but these festivals unfold on such an industrial scale that they’re no longer, well, festive. For a film critic on the assembly line of world cinema, they’re more work than fun. Whistler, which wrapped its 12th edition this past weekend, has always been the festival I most look forward to. It doesn’t hurt that skiing is part of the program—unlike Sundance, the WFF encourages it, and with its Celebrity Ski Challenge, the mountain becomes part of the program. But Whistler’s five-day extravaganza also brings together filmmakers, media and industry folk with unparalleled energy and intimacy.
As a guest of the festival, I wore two hats this year, as a journalist and a member of the documentary jury. And it was evident to me and everyone I talked to that this was the year Whistler raised its game. Continue…
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Opening Weekend: 'Edge of Darkness' and 'Grown Up Movie Star'
By Brian D. Johnson - Thursday, January 28, 2010 at 3:05 PM - 1 Comment
Mel Gibson goes over the edge in 'Edge of Darkness'
You can take your choice between two seriously messed-up, hell-raising dads this weekend. After eight years off the screen, Hollywood’s most notorious anti-Semite, Mel Gibson, is back in Edge of Darkness, and he comes out swinging. In this violent conspiracy thriller, he plays a Boston homicide detective whose 24-year-old daughter is gunned down by his side, a righteous motive for psychotic vengeance if ever there was one. And Mad Mel seems bent on proving that he’s still the meanest, if not the most mature, movie star on the block. Then there’s Grown Up Movie Star, a plucky tale of family chaos from Newfoundland, which recently had its premiere at the Sundance Film Festival. It stars Newfoundland native Shawn Doyle (Big Love) as an ex-NHL hockey player struggling to contain his sexually precocious 14-year-old daughter and his own closeted gay sexuality, and it features a powerhouse performance from Tatiana Maslany as the young girl. No contest here. Edge of Darkness, directed by Casino Royale‘s Martin Campbell, is one slick and nasty piece of Hollywood engineering, and there’s a certain fascination in watching Gibson erase every last iota of charm as he pushes his iconic persona over the edge, into the red zone of unadulterated hatred. But it’s a brutally cynical genre movie that eventually undermines the dead-eyed gravity of its star by veering into camp. Grown Up Movie Star, which skirts the edge of white-trash melodrama, risks running off the rails as well. But driven by strong performances and a sharp script, this bold feature debut by Newfoundland writer-director Adriana Maggs has a winning ring of authenticity. And, more to the point, it has characters you might actually want to spend time with. Continue…
